Why Should We Invest in Big Business if it Generates Only Meager Employment?

Today is Vishvakarma Puja Day in India, the day in which the working class Hindus in most factories and work places across the nation to pay homage to the divine architect god, Vishvakarma Bhagavan (god). The practice of worshiping Vishvakarma on a working day at the work place was started in a big way by the management of the first integrated steel plant in India -The Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO) at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand state, India, several decades ago. It is celebrated generally on 17th September every year and is very popular in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, etc where most of the iron and steel industries of India are located.

Some decades ago, the integrated steel plant managements allowed general public to visit the large works areas on the Vishvakarma Day and the steel workers and their families and relatives celebrated the day by conducting pujas (worship) of the god in the various productions shops and offices of the steel plants with full enthusiasm. This practice of allowing the general public to the work places of the steel plants got stopped when some governmental authorities put an end to it citing security concerns.

But the practice of worshiping the god in the work place on this day by the employees is being continued in these work temples of modern India. The day, though not a holiday, is a practically a kind of holiday for the workmen as the main work during this day is the puja activities!

The Tata steel management has perhaps sponsored this puja in a big way to promote the concept of work is worship and to keep the morale of the working class high by attaching divinity to work and also to invoke the god for their safety and prosperity in an otherwise risky working place.

In those days, an integrated steel plant used to be the real prime mover of the economy as it provided employment to millions of people, directly and indirectly. The government too used to consider the steel plants with due respect and regards as they knew its importance to the economy of the nation well, regardless of the fact that a steel plant actually showed any profits on its balance sheets. In reality, the integrated steel plants generated huge wealth and distributed it by being the main economic driver and the employment creator even when they showed meager profits or even losses on the balance sheets.

Moreover, the integrated steel plants never used to be considered as an industry which needs to show quick profits. It used to be a stable and steady business operation in a massive way and provided much income to the government by way of direct and indirect taxes and also provided direct and indirect employment to so many people who earned decent incomes.

In later years, some unthinking economists and media men made so much hues and cries over the balance sheets of the steel plants and stupidly declared them as wealth destroyers on the basis of the balance sheet evaluations which forced the steel plants to change track from their earlier concepts. Then began the foolish acts where profits were projected above employment. The future generations lost the opportunity to work stably in these work temples of India (perhaps elsewhere too, like the USA)

The thrust of the steel industry shifted to final balance sheet profit making rather than overall wealth creation! As a result the steel industry globally resorted to massive investments to enhance capacities to produce massively without creating equivalent employment opportunities! On the other hand, stupidity of economists and media caused fly by wire industries and businesses to get prominence in the society as main wealth creators. The stress shifted to quick profitability rather than consistency and overall benefit to society on a long term basis.

This stupidity of the so-called media savvy economists caused great damage to all nations due to the stupid globalization that set in without any one seriously studying the overall imbalances that could potentially generate. No one really realized the great harm due to such imbalances in the economies of the world working under conditions that are in no way to be termed as a level playing field! The market driven economies of the world forcibly came in to existence by the vision-less policies of some of the world leaders under influence by the modern day short sighted economists have now come to a stage of full scale collapse. It is affecting millions of young people across the world now. Young people in millions are becoming jobless now and their populations are increasing.

While the media savvy economists keep playing with their macro economic theories based on statistics of numbers, the ground realities are some thing else.

See these reports which should be sufficient to open the eyes of any one with some common sense:

In the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, for 368 posts of the lowest paid peon's job 2.3 million young jobless people have sent their applications! The report says that out of these some 175000 are engineering and commerce graduates. There are also some 255 odd PhD holders!(Read this report!)

On the other hand, highly skilled Indian youths are just fleeing the country for job opportunities abroad as they fail to find any worth while job within their own country! ( Read these: Report-1 & Report-2). Some say the brain and arm drain is good for India as it brings valuable foreign exchange to the country to make its monetary system strong. Some others are of the opinion that the high exodus of Indian youths to other countries in search of employment should be encouraged at all costs by training the Indian youths for employment outside rather than for their own country. Yet some others see the migrating Indians as a great opportunity to spread the Indian culture worldwide. I am not going in to that debate.

The reality is that India is failing to provide employment to its millions and millions of youths within the country. Some Indian industrialists keep complaining about the Indian education system; the education system of India does not enhance skills of the youths that they can be employed, they argue.

But the Indian policy makers and administrators seem to lack the sense and ability to convert the potential strengths of India to more and more opportunities. There actions are not enough to tackle the growing problem of unemployment. They should introspect why the 'make in India' campaigns are not giving measurable and notable results.

As I have written in some blogs earlier, one of the most important action that the Indian administration should do is to enhance the incomes of the people at the lower economic strata so that domestic consumption of goods and services increase and demand rises.

There are many ways by which the government can boost the employment opportunities in the country. But the first objective and priority of the government should be employment generation and nothing else. The government should consider giving appreciable tax rebates for companies and organisations who are good in creating more and more permanent jobs with salaries of employees above the minimum income taxable level. In other words, corporate tax level should come down as the employee strengths above taxable salary level increase.

It should be the priority of the government to find new job avenues. Firms that come up with new concepts and ideas which enhances employment should be given priority for government approvals rather than those coming up with higher capital expenditure or higher returns only.

Technical and financial audits of all investments should be made mandatory. More and more private audit organizations should be allowed to be set up for this purpose. Similarly for all doctors and hospitals, it should be mandatory to provide the medical reports to the patient within a reasonable time of say one week so that the report could be filed with the medical insurance companies or for other purposes as decided by the patients or their relatives. The authorities should study the employment generation potential and the practice of medical transcriptions within India in the coming years.

Social security system should be enhanced with higher returns to the participants instead of the peanut schemes of the government as of now. If needed more and more social security organizations should be set up. Contributions to the social security system should be made mandatory for all working individuals. All working individuals should have just one social security number and the system of joining, continuation and getting benefits should be simple and practical instead of the present member unfriendly systems. 

Real estate companies should be allowed to run and manage the colonies and the flats they build and sell on a long term basis on a chargeable basis in a professional manner. The present system of forcing the owners associations to manage the residential colonies and apartment complexes should be discontinued. The real estate companies should also be allowed to set up residential complexes with units leased on rental charges. 

Skills and training need to be given due importance. It should be mandatory for employers to employ people with proven training and skills for a particular technical or professional job. In other words, the skills imparted at professional college levels should continue in the job front as well. The practices of employing any tom-dick-and-harry for any job should be restricted by statutes. Employers must be mandated to issue specific skill and experience certificates to employees on an annual basis which should be used to build the national skill and experience pool.

It should be mandatory for professionals to be members of their professional associations or institutions which are recognized by the government. Those who are not members of such professional guilds should not be allowed to work in that profession. It should be the responsibility of these guilds to ensure minimum professional skill and experience levels for their members for a particular professional job.

There are several other things that could be thought of. But for all these, the primary objective should be employment generation and all other objectives should come later.

If there is a will, there is a way.

Will our leaders listen? Will our leaders lead this country to prosper for the benefit of each and every citizen? Will they use their thought faculties properly and act? Let us wait and watch. After all, our leaders too are from our own lots! If we think better, they too would.

Now Its Time That You Should Know More About Lead, MSG and Other Substances in Your Foods!

Being a chemical engineer, I do not necessarily agree with all those who try to induce fear about materials and processes that we encounter in our day to day lives now.

Basically I believe that all materials and substances as available in this world as created by the divine creators are useful and has some purpose.

In essence, that assumes the notion that everything is good.

What is bad in this good is the way and manner in which we use and manage these good things around us. When we mismanage materials and substances, they can turn to become bad for us.

That is why the saints of the old has warned us this way: In excess, even amrit is poison! [In Hindu mythology, amrit is the potion drink of the gods that give them immortality!]

So, if you relish eating and drinking something, there need not be too much worry so long as you do it wisely. In fact, your worries could do more harm to you than what you eat and drink!

But the key here is your wisdom. While you use substances and materials for eating, drinking or for any other purpose, your actions have to be done wisely. You and your fellows will face problems when you do things stupidly or foolishly! You should not do stupid things like destroying or burning your home just for evicting a rat that had gone inside it!

Why I have written this much is because I find constant efforts by some people to induce fear and anxieties among people, in the guise of creating awareness. Making the common people fearful and anxious is a trick used by some people for gaining some advantage for themselves! 

If you go to a non professional doctor who doesnot give any importance to professional ethics, there is all likelihood that the doctor may give such medical descriptions about your health conditions that you become perpetually worried about it. Eventually you may become a perpetual visitor to the doctors and the hospitals divesting a good part of your incomes! 

The media men and women too might bombard you with lots of inconclusive information and opinions that could make you totally confused, scared and anxious. Not all people have the capacity to isolate and process facts from falsehoods or digest falsehoods and misinformation with a pinch of salt!

Having said that, I cannot not however, agree to the superiority of some humans who assert their right of domination over others whom they view as lesser mortals. Efforts of democratically elected governmental representatives to force their food habits and beliefs on others is one such thing which I consider as not commensurate with modern civilization. The savages of the past believed might is right. But modern human civilization does not endorse that. Hence, acts and thoughts similar to that of savages emerging in a civilized society, however negligible it might be, cannot be considered as palatable to any civilized mind.

I believe in the democratic right of all governments to make rules and regulations and administer them for the good of the people at large. But such rules and regulations when done whimsically and arbitrarily without the application of mind cannot be acceptable as coming from a civilized government. 

Democratic governments and the elected representatives of people have the responsibility to give convincing answers to the citizens about their acts. But when they show arbitrariness of dictatorship, civilized citizens need to worry about their society's future!

In my country, one state in the south, all of a sudden banned a section of the hotels from serving alcoholic bewerages. The arbitrariness of their decision was too obviously reflecting the vested interests behind such a governmental action. The elected representatives could not explain the logic of their acts. Now those vested interest representatives are facing the heat of public anger and investigations.

In a similar manner, some other public representatives are forcing their own beliefs on the vast majority of people with respect to food habits. Some do not like beef and meat, some do not like eggs and they want others to follow suit. Will their acts sustain?

Now it is this processed food made by a multinational food company called Nestle in the name of Maggi. The controversy started a couple of days ago and the political strategy of bans followed without proper explanations or clarifications from the governmental authorities. Interestingly, the actions of the governments are obviously reflecting their political interests. 

But what is this controversy all about? The media while bombarding the news about the bad luck of the Swiss company Nestle, is not honest enough to disclose the truths. They too do not follow any professional ethics in this country. And that should be a point of worry for the thinking people.

But information is not anybody's monopoly in this age of the internet. You can know much and make your own conclusions.

The controversy is about the concentration of two substances in the Maggi noodles which is essentially a dried and easily cookable thread like food material made of wheat flour. Together with the pouch of the cookable noodle, it has a mix of tastemaker in another pouch which contains salt, chilli and other substances for making the noodles tasty to eat.

Now about the controversial ingrediants. One is called the glutamate or more precisely, Mono Sodium Glutamate or MSG. It is an organic salt which is found in many natural food items like tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, etc. It is also manufactured by chemical processes. 

Interestingly it is entirely produced from vegetable raw materials such as starch. (I suggest the readers to find more about the production and uses of MSG as given in the website of the International Starch Institute of Denmark (the least corrupt country in the world!)  

Mono Sodium Glutamate has been in use in the world for at least a century now. It is a food additive approved by many nations and is classified in the European classification of food additives (the E-number) . Though there are some isolated research studies which describes some not so serious adverse effects of MSG when consumed exceeding some limits, such reports remain as incoclusive. It is an approved taste enhancer for various kinds of foods in most countries. 

Any food which is added with tomatoes or cheese or mushroom can test positively for MSG. As a precautionary directive, MSG levels as acceptable for common use in foods have been notified by some countries. Essentially, there is no need for any one to get panic about this taste enhancer as it is safer that common salt for normal use. User descretion is always needed when people consume food and bewerages. Any food material in excess may be injurious to health. For that matter, even common salt is injurious when it is added beyond certain limits in food.

The next controversy is about lead (Chemically, Plumbum or Pb). There is no way that Nestle would add any lead salt or substance knowingly to their noodles. Because, lead does not have any role in the manufacturing process for making noodles. But then from where this lead coming from in Maggi noodles? The authorities who have licenced Maggi and Nestle need to explain this.

In reality, lead comes into our water and food from every where. Our air, water and cereals all in India contains lead in small quantities. Nestle or any other manufacturer is not adding any lead for making their products. Because our authorities and public fail to manage air, water and land pollution in a pragmatic manner, water and food as obtained in India has a higher level of lead content as compared to international standards. For example, drinking water and bottled mineral water in India has  lead content in it. Just because the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) publish a detailed wish list of quality standards for foods and drinks that are to be made and sold in India, the quality of food and drinks as available in India is not going to become superior! 

Water in many cities come to home and industry through metallic or plastic pipes. All these pipes and fittings contain some lead and from it the water can have some small quantity in parts per million levels. 

The atmosphere gets lead oxides from the burning of coal in power plants and by humans. 

Substantial quantities of lead comes from many of our paints that we use in our homes.

From all these, lead is absorbed by the plants including wheat. So wheat flour (atta or maida) can have some lead naturally in it.

And there is no chemical process by which this lead from wheat flour or water could be removed. 

In reality, the lead that Maggi contains is naturally occuring from the raw materials that they procure from Indian sources!

When this is the reality, is the knee jerk action of the Indian authorities justifiable? I doubt.

It is time that the authorities explain things properly.

Otherwise, this too should be guaged as a consequence of vested interests playing.

And that is not a good thing for a civilized society! 

When the corruption perception index of India remains at a shameful level, the actions done by the Indian authorities are not likely to be viewed as something logical, reasonable or justifiable unless the authorities show the wisdom to make things more transparent and clear.

If it is not, India is not going to be a favorable destination for business and industry even when the top authorities publicly keep desiring otherwise.

Ramifications of the Great Indian Noodle Game for 'Acche Dins' Ahead!

A couple of days ago, early in the morning I got a call from my son from Bengaluru. He was anxious to discuss about the sudden disappearance of Maggi noodles from the Bengaluru markets and making him and thousands others like him starve for their daily calorie needs.

" Dad, we have been eating Maggi from our childhood days. We never had any problems. Then what is this thamasha (Indian word for irresponsible acts) this government fellows are doing now?" 

He seemed a bit agitated and that was quite a natural response because, youngsters like him who are working in India's metros for making India shine have been dependent on this quick-to-cook-and-eat noodle packs produced and marketted by one of the world's largest and reputed food product companies from their childhood days. Parents like us have been taking advantage of the modern food technologies as brought in by innovative, technology oriented multinational companies like Nestle.

In fact consumers like us have been happy and believing. Believing the company and its decades old reputation. We also believed the wisdom of the governmental authorities who apparently did the detailed investigations before giving the licences for such companies to produce and market their food products in India just as they did it in their own countries and elsewhere. I remember reading the company's noodle packs and their ready to cook soup packs containing the details of the contents and the declarations and cautions about these tasty foods containing MSG (mono sodium glutamate) as a taste enhancer. [Note that this substance is found in many naturally occuring food items such as tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, etc and has been in use world wide for more than a century now!]

But that was not any botheration for us. Because we considered the foods made by the company's fully automated plants much more safer than all other kinds of ready to eat food as available in the Indian markets. We also knew the limitations and competency of the government's food testing laboratories and their inspectors and it was quite logical to believe the company more than the latter!

As ordinary citizens of a democratic country, having its legacy from several kingdoms and the later British rule era, we had been always under the notion that governments are for the good of the people. It is very difficult for ordinary citizens to assume that the government could do any thing detrimental to the people. If at all such things, that were only possible during any foreign rule like what we had during the British times. Our own governments that get formed by our own people can never do any thing wrong! That have been our wishful thoughts all these past decades. 

It has been very difficult for us to believe in the unholy nexus between our own people directly linked with business and the governments and about the possibility of their unholy mutual enmities which could develop as cold wars affecting our own lives!

Businesses are essentially a service to the citizens at large and no population or country can exist without some people doing business activities. Under this concept, businesses involve providing essential human service. Businesses provide the opportunity for all to meet their essential needs to survive and no one can imagine a situation where in businesses do not exist. Human civilization will vanish when businesses cease to function. They are the essential human invention by which we do and regulate all our activities. When there is no business, perhaps there is no nation or no government. We go back to our primitive days of tribal existence in the jungles. 

Industry and business are needed for us to progress and it is essential that we keep on inventing new avenues for doing more and more business activities as our populations keep growing.

While businesses give benefits to the consuming public, the business owners get a chance to make money. Ideally, they should make reasonable money as a reward for the services they do. From the money they make they should also share a part with the government as taxes for meeting the expenses of the governments. But when things go unreasonable, the society at large suffers either directly or indirectly. 

When businesses are managed  by unscrupulous or incompetent  people, detrimental problems to people arise. So, in the interest of the people at large, the people are required to develop rules and regulations for doing business. Governments are for that purpose.

But governments are also formed of people and when unscrupulous and incompetent people manage governments, detrimental problems to people arise. 

Thus it is the unscrupulous and incompetent people in the business and in the government that create problems for the people in general.

Unscrupulous people in the governmental systems might do acts arising out of vested interests, lack of knowledge or pure incompetency. 

Let us take the Maggi noodle case as an example. The company developed a process by which this food product with a long shelf life is produced. The government gave the permission to the company to produce it in their factories and do the marketing in accordance with the laws. Maggi became a house hold name and gradually became the major profit earning product of the company in India in a time span of about thirty years. The company contributed to the government in taxes and also provided direct and indirect employment to thousands of Indians. For all these years, the governments food inspecting authorities and licensing authoritied did not find any fault with this company or its product. In my knowledge, no government authority of India gave any public caution notice about this product so far during the last three decades.

When a product is existing for such a long period with full public and governmental patronage, it is normally assumed as a reputed product. But then what has happened all of a sudden in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh that the food inspectors of that region find this household food product tested as unacceptable for human consumption? Why did many states like the NCR react immediately by almost making a kind of ban on this product?

Going by the past experiences the following could be the possible reasons:

1. Possibility of mischief: There could be some vested interests somewhere who wants to tarnish the image of Nestle so that they could possibliy gain. Business rivals doing such mischiefs are not uncommon in modern history! They can do it in many ways by manipulating the samples or by manipulating the tests done in the food testing labs. Personnel that man these systems  are not fully unpliable!

2. Possibility of error in sampling and testing due to incompetency of the food control staff. The governmental laboratories usually do not have very good test facilities or very good analysts if one goes by the usual standard with regard to governmental facilities in India.

3. Manufacturing process errors. This is very unlikely as the company has been doing this for years under strict quality control systems. Being a multinational technology innovator, the company is likely to have a better testing and quality control facility than the governmental labs.

4. Impractical chemical quality norms as fixed by law:  The problems highlighted in Maggi's case now is with regard to the allowable limits of lead content and MSG content in the noodles. India does not have authentic research facilities of its own to arrive at conclusions of this kind. When even the technologists and scientists are not sure about the impact of a micro constituent in any food or drink, how could it be made for sure as a legal norm? It is normally as a result of lobbyists  or the law drafting technocrats copy pasting some foreign study materials to be evolved as some impractical laws of the land which cannot be so easily reversed. The difficulty with this kind of technical laws are that they are never understood by the legislatures nor the enforcing agencies who are all essentially non-technical as far as their competencies are concerned. Once an impractical law gets enacted, it provides much under-the-table opportunities for many enforcing authorities to be too whimsical in their acts!

5. An effort to arm-twist the business entity for various reasons: It is a common practice in many countries to use law to arm-twist peoples, groups or companies. Some people having power of governance do this for various reasons. This happens when they work essentially for self satisfaction rather than the common good of the nation.

6. Absence of governmental authority: Govermental determination and decision making go here and there when the govermental leadership is practically weak and visionless. In such a scenario, errors due to incompetence and ignorance keep happening at various levels of governance resulting in unpredictable governmental actions and responses. In the Indian context, it is normally the genaralist bureaucrats making the final directions towards decision making. When highly technical issues are involved, these directions become mutually contradictory and often funny.

It could be any one or all or several of such reasons that creates this kind of situations in governance which for the learned citizens appear as directionless and contradictory to the generally perceived vision of the top leadership of the country. For the ordinary common folks, it makes no difference as they are always confused and divided as ever!

In this case of Maggi noodles, such administrative goof ups might be creating tensions for the Nestle India officers, distributors, stock holders, suppliers ,  employees and perhaps consumers like us who have to think now for alternatives for meeting their easy food solutions. 

And incidentally the air that we breath has more lead than in the Maggi!

But what are the ramifications of incidences like this for the whole of India?

India keeps on proving that it is not a business friendly country. Not that any one should be allowed to do any kind of business by violating all rules. But, there should be transparency and governmental ethics that reciprocate with business ethics.

I have heard Indian small and medium scale company promoters talking about the umpteen numbers of fines and penalties that the authorities now force on companies for silly matters. The Indian bureaucracy does not offer solutions to the problems faced by the industries while they seem happy to enhance problems. Perhaps, it could be due to their unhappiness over their equally non-responsive political hierarchy above!

Will 'acche din' (good days) ever come for business and industry to do make in India honestly a success? It is easy to dream about beating China and going ahead in full steam. How many in India really understand the fundamental systemic efforts made by the successive Chinese governments that enabled China to go far ahead of India in the last 20-30 years? 

India keeps failing to learn from others. Rather it refuses to do so. This reluctance in the whole system is too visible now than in the past. That is my experience. The reason are many. Most importantly, there are few who understand the root causes to make any intelligent effort to correct areas that went wrong.

Systemic errors can even make great nations humbled. Erstwhile USSR was one typical example. Perhaps, the USA too is moving in certain wrong paths here and there which could make that country too humbled in the near future unless they become wise to correct it. Fortunately, these nations have competent people who realizes mistakes and helps them to correct their wrong course.

But in India, apparently things are not appearing as so easy. Lack of competency and character in key positions is one major factor that is unfavorable for India as of now. 

Though difficult, it is not something impossible. But to make that happen, there should be honest efforts to recognize our weaknesses and rectify the cumulative errors that keep braking our progress ahead!    

Which is the Most Energy Efficient Ceiling Fan in India? How to Get it?

How much electrical energy you use in a month for your very justified needs? How much money you pay to the electricity utility company per month for your electricity? 

Many of us Indians do understand the importance of saving energy, but we really are very reluctant to do something about it.

Ceiling fans are one of the electrical appliances which have come almost an indispensable in Indian homes and offices. In many middle class Indian homes at least one ceiling fan keep running on an average 20 hours a day for almost 300 days in an year.

Ceiling fans are not normally considered as high energy consuming devices. At least that is the general public perception.

A couple of decades ago, it was common that a ceiling fan with its speed regulator used to consume about 80 to 100 watts of electricity an hour.

With more and more energy efficient designs and with the introduction of electronic speed regulators, the average electrical power consumption of a normal sized ceiling fan has come down in the recent years. The best energy efficient ceiling fans as manufactured by reputed ceiling fan manufacturers now come with a wattage in the range of 45 to 60 watts. Ceiling fans now come with Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) star ratings. A few reputed suppliers have now 5 star rated ceiling fans which is considered as the best with respect to energy efficiency. 

For example a five star rated 1200 mm sweep ceiling fan of a reputed make consumes about 45 watts combined with its electronic speed regulator and costs about Rs. 2000/- per set. Larger fans of higher sweep may consume a few more watts per hour and costs a few hundred rupees more.

I was wondering whether there could be any further improvement in this regard and found that one Indian manufacturer has begun manufacturing and marketing a remarkably super efficient ceiling fan in the Indian market. 

This fan is marketed in the brand name-Superfan. It is manufactured by an innovative technology company located in south India called Versa Drives Private Limited, Coimbatore.

click the images for more details and buying them online

They manufacture many models of their super energy efficient ceiling fans in the superfan brand. You may visit this webpage for the technical details and also buying  these models.

These  models have sweep sizes of 1200 mm and 1400 mm and are all with the highest BEE energy star rating of five.

All these models have a maximum energy consumption ranging from 35 to 38 watts much lower than the best efficient models of other Indian manufacturers. 

Unlike conventional ceiling fans superfan models come in attractive colors. These hi tech fans do not require the regulator and are operated using remote controls. They are provided with very interesting and useful features. 

Suppose that you are using a normal ceiling fan which consumes about 60 watts of electrical energy. Suppose that you use this fan for about just one hour in a day.

That means you will use 60/1000 KW x 1 hr x 30 d = 1.8 KWh or units of electricity per month on account of this one fan used for just one hour a day.

Now a good majority of middle class homes in India have 3 to 4 ceiling fans and their combined use could be anything in the range of 10-20 hour in a day or even higher. That means a monthly electric consumption of 18 to 36 units or more on account of the fans.

Now suppose that you replace these fans by these superfans which consume only about 35 watts instead of the 60 watts of your old fans.

The net saving per fan is 25 watts per hour or about 0.75 units in a month for every hour of daily use of the fan.

If on the average your total daily use is 10 hours, your save 7.5 units. If it is 20 hours, you save 15 units.

The electricity tariff in most Indian cities and states are based on slab system. For example, Kerala used to be a state with lower electricity charges of less than a rupee per unit in the past for the domestic consumers whose consumption was less than 50 units per month. But in the recent years this has become more than double and stands at Rs. 2.8 per unit. For a family which uses over 200 units, the rate of tariff is R.7 per unit. [See this news report] 

In some states and in some cities, the rates are higher and the electricity charges is on an increasing trend. In the national capital Delhi, the rates are much higher. The rising electricity charges have become one of the major political issues there.

There are many other hidden charges as well. The commercial rates are much higher. Due to the slab system and the various hidden charges such as meter rent, installation cost, taxes, etc the actual cost varies from place to place.

Effectively, the average cost per unit (KWh) of electricity come out to be to the tune of 5 to 7 rupees as of now. It would keep rising year after year. 

India is becoming a power starved nation as the gross deficit in energy keep rising every year. Again, electricity production enhances various kinds of environmental hazards.

All these are ample reasons for India to find ways to curtail its energy consumption. Conservation of energy should be one of the prime policies for India.

Suppose you are able to save 15 units of electricity in a month by using super efficient ceiling fans. At Rs.5 per unit, you save Rs.75 in a month or Rs.900/- in an year. [You can calculate the savings and see the difference in this superfan webpage]

Due to superior technology, superfan models are costlier than other normally available ceiling fans in India. One may have to spend about Rs. 3000- 3500 for one superfan model while lesser efficient ceiling fans could be purchased at half the cost.

But these fans are worth that cost the additional cost is paid back within two or three years time. Besides these fans are aesthetically good looking and improves the decor of the home or office.

Suppose that about 5 million homes in Kerala state replace their fans with this new fan and save 15 units of electricity per month. With that kind of a saving, Kerala can immediately divert about 100 MW of electric power for industrial production! It amounts to about 16% of electricity production from the states biggest hydel electricity production facility at Idukki! 

I have just given an indicative energy saving potential by adopting a simple step. Energy saving by replacing the filament type electric bulbs with compact florescent lights (CFL) has given much saving in the past. Now, Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs are revolutionizing it. A 100 W filament bulb is more or less equivalent to a 40 W florescent tube which in turn is equivalent to an 11 W CFL. But an LED bulb of 4-5 W has the potential to reduce even that to half or even lesser. But at the present costs, the capital costs involved in saving one watt of lighting power by replacing CFL with LED comes to about Rs.50 per watt. The difference in price of a 5 W LED bulb and an 11 W CFL is about Rs.250. The LED light is costlier by about Rs.250.

A superfan too would be costlier in the same way as compared to a normal 5star energy efficient fan of equivalent capacity. But the superfan saves 25 W of electricity more than any other 5 star rated ceiling fan in the Indian market now.

Some time ago, superfan models were not very much available with the Indian retailers. 

But now the manufacturers of this fan, it seems, have adopted better marketing actions. Superfans can now be procured online from reputed e-shopping sites such asAmazon!

It is indeed a good thing. 

This is indeed a good independent make-in-India initiative, though established before the present 'Make-in-India' campaign  and needs to be appreciated.

While individual citizens can contribute much for energy saving by taking care of those few watts or kilowatts of power they consume for domestic purposes for fans, lights and other domestic electrical appliances, the potential for energy saving by commercial establishments too is substantial.

Imagine the national and individual savings when our offices install energy efficient fans, lights and air-conditioners in place of the old less efficient electrical equipment!

What is needed is a bit more attention to the details of our energy consumption by doing some energy audit and taking corrective actions.

Remember! Every watt of power saved not only gives financial benefits, but also save our environment from becoming more and more polluted. By using energy efficient electrical appliances and using them judicially, you could even save enough to consider taking another bank loan for some other purpose as your monthly energy saving could be equivalent to another loan EMI!

Our industrial design engineers and entrepreneurs should be encouraged to design and produce energy efficient appliances. 

Government should consider giving incentives for such initiatives.  

Developmental Issues of India: Should We Do the Root Cause Analysis or Should We Pray for Getting Back Our Senses?

Let us pray for getting back our senses!

Here are some interesting news that are online today which tells about the Indian economic projections:

1. In a global survey 62 % Indian CEOs are reportedly optimistic about the future of their companies for the next 12 months. ( Don't ask why only 12 months!) 

2. India poised to become the fastest growing economy in the world in the next two years- says IMF, the Economic Times report.

Yes, the above reports are very optimistic, but apparently look like vision statements of people who operate from air-conditioned coziness rather than knowing the grass root realities.

The problem is that we hardly understand the dynamics of money and physical work. 

For example, how do we compare the worth of two companies doing business? 

Company-A  has a turn-over of 2000 million rupees and is consistently showing profit for the past few years. Undoubtedly, its stocks are in high demand and are traded many times above the issue price.

Company-B on the other hand has a turn-over 5000 million rupees and is barely showing any profit or at times reporting losses in the balance sheet. Its stocks are not much favored and has a low value.

By simple common sense of present day economic macro analysis, company-A would be the preferred one. 

Now, let us examine these two companies a bit more closely. 

Company-A , though has a good looking and posh air conditioned office with modern office gadgets and decor, the office space is on lease. The company's 200 odd employees do jobs connected with some financial services online. The economic activity the company does arises out of some policy guidelines and special economic situation. There is no guarantee of the situation remaining the same for ever. But if the company goes without work, they have not much to lose.

Company-B on the other hand is a manufacturer of physical goods. It has more than 2000 employees having various skills belonging to various professional disciplines. The raw materials to the company are produced by several ancillary industries. The products of the company also go for industrial consumption. The company has its own land, factory, machinery and such infrastructure. Thus this company can be considered as a core industry and an economic activity booster.

Often, company-B would be seen to move towards more and more unfavorable conditions including getting an incompetent management team that would eventually make it to close down its operations. That causes painful miseries to the 2000 families directly and a dent in the country's economy indirectly.

In olden days, governmental authorities used to be more sensitive to such issues and would have intervened at the right time to prevent such economic mishaps. Of late, in the so-called liberalized economy, governmental authorities are seen as shying away from executing their responsibilities lest they may be accused as partisan.

As I have written in this forum many times, government has a right and a responsibility to intervene in the affairs of any corporate business entity when it is faced with situations where employment and governmental income by way of taxes are affected or likely to be affected.

The ultimate aim for any government is to ensure welfare of its people and employment should be one of the first priorities under citizens' welfare. If the citizens do not have income, no country could progress. So, income of citizens should be the first priority of any progressive nation and its leadership.

Leader of a massive BPL population is nothing of a big achievement! Power and prosperity of the nation vest with the people. If the people are poor and pathetic, the nation as a whole too would be of that type. Strikingly rich individuals of such nations should not be in a position to raise their heads in pride if they have any consciousness left within them!

India is a nation of predominantly income-less people, with only about 3 % of the people officially paying direct income tax as per government reports. Even in this nearly 90% are in the income range of  $ 3000-8000 per year. A little over 42000 people in the whole of India are officially reported with an income exceeding $ 160,000/- in a year. But people having wealth in millions may be much more considering the high levels of black money, corruption and under reporting of wealth.

But yet it is a shameful condition. There is nothing that common Indians could take pride of in such a situation. The unemployment and under employment situations are alarmingly growing with no one having any solutions. Even those employed are hardly with any decent income that could cause any boost in the Indian market to generate more employment.

In India no one seems to be bothered about the situation. All seem to be pretty well satisfied with all the problems. They move as if in good sedation that they feel no pains ever!

A young man sent this famous Napoleon quote to me that reflected the anguish and anxiety that only a negligible number of people in India realize:

" The world suffers a lot not because of the violence of the bad people, but because of the silence of the good people!"

Is India listening? I doubt. 

Should we worry about the walking dead bodies of India any more? I do not know. I too am becoming one of that!

So how to do the root cause analysis of India when the majority feel no pains?

I could have done it to some extent. But there is no one to see and act on my analysis.

All around me appear as senseless. 

Soon, my own ability would vanish.

I too would become a walking dead body, sedated , senseless and feeling no pains!

Perhaps in the bliss of ignorance!

See how infectious this sedation is!

I started with something and ended with this sedated philosophy!

But it's okay because no one is going to read this and react.

If possible, let us pray to God for giving back our senses!